Staunton Vindicator

COLUMBIA, S. C.,Dec. 3d, 1860.

DEAR SIR:--As yet, I have seen but little of the city, for such it claims to be.--The present census, imperfectly taken all admit, makes the population near ten thousand. From the State House, the corporate limits extend a mile towards each point of the compass. The ground sloping gracefully in every direction affords very desirable building sites, anywhere. The streets are one hundred feet wide, and planted with the willow and live oak and China trees.--The residences have spacious grounds most tastefully ornamented with all the evergreens and shrubs common to this clime.--The most interesting part of the town, containing the residence of the late Wade Hampton, now occupied by his son-in-law, Col. John Preston, I have not yet seen.--This spot it was where the distinguished orator of the South, Wm. C. Preston lately breathed his last. The new State House, in progress of building, commands a beautiful view, the site reminding me much of ours. The granite of which it is constructed is nearly equal to that at Richmond--perhaps not quite so fair in color, or fine in texture. The style is Corinthian, and judging from a beautiful drawing in the architects office, will be more striking than the National Capitol. The busts of McDuffie and Hayne, in basso-relievo, adorn the front, on either side of the door opening from the second story, on to the portico.--In rear of the new, and in front of the old State House, stands the monument erected to the memory of those brave men of the Palmetto Regiment who fell in Mexico.--The base is of iron, some eight feet in height, with sides inclining towards each other at top, and with an open space at bottom, in which is a copper block, inscribed with the names of the officers and men, and the whole surmounted with a Palmetto tree of copper, but so true to life, that you are only convinced by handling it that it has not just been removed from that beautiful grove you will remember, on the south of Charleston harbor. In the original design the monument was to have been made much higher, which will be done when the new Capitol is finished, by placing it on a more elevated base. In these days you can scarcely open a paper from the North, that you do not find taunts and innuendos indulged in by those miserable Black Republican journals, against the bravery and courage of this people. It has been my pleasure since I came here to become well acquainted with two of the brave Captains of that noble regiments, one of whom holds the position of Adjutant and Inspector General of the State, and the other represents most worthily the District of Newberry in the present House of Representatives, and wears the title of General. Before the battle of Cherubusco, I think it was, that Gen. Butler, in writing to Gen. Worth, said--"Col. Dickinson deserves a place in the picture, near the flashing of the guns." Gen. Worth, on the day of battle, said to Gen. Shields, "there is not a South Carolinian here, who will not follow you to de! ath."--"Aye, to the death," responded private Whitfield Brooks. "Stand the fire at all hazards, remembering you are from South Carolina," were the last inspiring words of Lieut. D. R. Clarke. But I cannot give you a better description of their noble bearing on that bloody field, than in the description taken from the "Life and Correspondence of Gen. John a. Quitman." which I enclose. The following is an extract of the description of the battle of Cherubusco:
"Col. Butler, of the South Carolinians,, had left his sick bed against the remonstrances of his friends, to lead the Palmettos to the combat. Early in the engagement his horse was shot under him. Soon after he received a painful wound in the knee, yielded the command to Lieutenant Colonel Dickinson. Taking the Palmetto flag from the hands of Sergeant Beggs, Dickinson placed himself in front, and Beggs was immediately shot down. Col. Butler now came up to resume the command and was killed by the side of Dickinson ! while standing under the flag. Dickinson himself soon fell mor! tally wounded, (he died some weeks afterwards,) and Major Gladden received it from his hands, and committed it to Lieut. Baker, who being unable, from debility and exhaustion, to carry it, Major Gladden placed it in the hands of Patrick Leonard, and led his regiment to the charge. His men fell rapidly, but not one wavered, from first to last, under the concentrated fire of the enemy. In the whole history of war there has never been a more striking example of indifference to death, the result of stern resolve. Each man fought for the honor of Carolina. Several companies were almost annihilated.--Some had not men enough to bury their dead, or bear their wounded to the ambulances. The uniforms of some of the officers were literally torn from their persons; the color-bearers were shot down; but the flag, bathed in their blood, was always seized as they fell and borne to the front. Proudly it floated through the tempest of death until the victory had been won, and then, all torn and blood-stained, it dropped over its own glorious dead. The regiment entered the battle with 273 rank and file, and when it was over it mustered 169! It had no missing: its dead and wounded made up the deficiency. Cadets of a noble State, sons of a sunny clime, branded by their country as traitors, for defending the Constitution and their rights from usurpation and outrage, yet dying cheerfully for that country in a foreign land--the world may learn that such a race, in defense of their own homestead and institutions, can never be subdued?

Now, my friend, I deem it a privilege to have looked upon "that flag," or the shreds and remains of it; and I pardon the excess of State pride of a people who can boast of such trophies. It is preserved where it ought to be in a glass case in their Capitol, where her sons and daughters may see it--the former to learn the lessons so gallantly taught them, and the latter to cherish their memories and inspirit their sons and brothers to emulate their deeds. You may rest assured that when that evil day shall come (and may kind Heaven avert it!) that shall see the North in battle array against the South--South Carolina will send as brave and as gallant and as true men into the field, as the noble spirits that carried that Palmetto flag from Vera Cruz and planted it on the battlements of the halls of the Montezumas. And, more than that, as fair and beautiful and spirited mothers and wives and daughters will send them forth to battle for their household gods, as any, the most highly favored of this once happy nation, could ever boast. The spirit of the fair is excited beyond that of the other sex in this crisis, and he would be a craven base who would not fight for homes, graced with such inmates.

But permit me here, in connexion with this last subject, (the slave trade,) to do justice to the people of S. C., and to defend them fully and decidedly against this charge brought against them. I speak what I do know, when I say that not one sixth part of her population is in favor of re-opening this trade--I have it from her Senators and Representatives, from every part of the State, and they disapprove of it unequivocally and most decidedly, as inhumane, cruel, uncalled for, and inexpedient. They tell me that a few men along the coast and in some of the lower parishes, and generally of the Rhett school, are in favor of it. I have heard but one man advocate it, and I have purposely sought conversations with them, to find out their views. I could but be impressed with the fact, that S. C. is ahead of Virginia in humanity, in regarding as sacred the marriage relations among her slaves, and frowning down a disposition to separate husband and wife, parent and child. Public opinion is strong, decided, unmistakable, and departure from this course is the exception. In no part of the South is the slave more cared for, more humanely treated, better clothed, fed and nursed when sick; and what untold and unspeakable comfort would there be to the thousands of houseless sufferers, especially females, in the Northern States, this winter, and at this very moment, if they could not only share the blessings of these slaves--aye, but if they could but enjoy what they waste, what they throw away. And yet, those myrmidons of hell--the Sumners and Garrisons and Wilsons, and all that class of pseudo-philanthropists--not only shut their eyes to these starving, suffering, wretched thousands famishing at their doors, but must incite these happy, contented, well cared for slaves to murder and pillage, to rapine and blood. Not only do they instigate, by their counsels and their teachings, that all this is doing God service, but their blind fanaticism has applied the incendiary's torch to this noble fabric, that has sheltered us for three-parts of a century, and has rent this glorious Union into fragments. If there be a spot in the region of the damned, where the torture is greater--where the serpent stingeth deeper--to that spot ought they to be consigned. Pardon the warmth of this digression. In a conversation with a large rice planter from the coast, who works some three hundred negroes, he informs me the task system prevails, which the hand can accomplish in a half of three parts of a day with ease, and devote the remainder to his own amusement or profit. And one source of both is in shooting ducks, which they sell. On my expressing surprise at their being permitted to have arms, he remarked, nothing was more common, and he supposed that on his plantation there were forth or fifty of one kind or another, and that in a hostile invasion he felt perfectly assured those arms would be used in the defence of their master, instead of against him. To show the absurdity of the idea entertained by these aforesaid satellites of his Infernal Majesty--that the labor of the South can as well be performed by the white as the negro--I will state that gentlemen of unquestionable integrity inform me, there are plantations within a dozen of miles of the city of harleston, the owners of which would no more dare to sleep on one night than to lie down under the shade of the deadly Upas, and yet the negroes enjoy uninterrupted health. The overseer, whose duty it is to be almost constantly with them, has his residence off on the sand hills, as convenient as can be, and often falls a victim to disease. Of course I refer to the cultivation of rice. I find no sort of apprehension entertained by the people, whether from the mountain, the interior, or the low-land districts, in regard to their slaves. Such is their humanity towards them, and the strength of attachment, that all the influences the designing and mischievous can, with their limited opportunities, bring to bear on this class, is inoperative.

As I have been disposed to run a parallel between South Carolinians and Virginians, I will do so in another instance, and, I regret to say, the comparison is unfavorable to us. I refer to the subject of temperance. I have been now well night a week in intimate friendly social intercourse with the representatives of both branches of the Legislature of the State, and seen much, also, of other dignitaries, such as Judges, ex-Governors, &c., and I have not seen a drink at the bar indulged in by any on of these gentlemen since I have been here. I have seen more liquor drank at the bar of the Virginia Hotel in two hours of a Court day, or in a half-hour at the bar of the Exchange hotel, than I have seen drank by all classes here since I came. In many of the districts of the State there is not a licensed grog-shop of any kind, and the representative of the district of Marlboro' informed me that there had not been one in his for the period of twenty years, and what may seem singular, the Board of Commissioners, whose duty it is to grant these licenses, were men fond of the article, but yet, actuated by a sense of duty to others, invariably refused all applications. I may have observed in a former letter the marked homogeneous character of this people. It is particularly true as applied to the representatives. To one familiar with the members of our Legislature, the fact would be quite noticeable. They have no subjects of political difference, nor any local questions that make the asperity you sometimes see in our legislative halls. In the great questions now agitating the State, they are a unit. 'Tis remarkable, that of their prominent men, Col. Pettigree, of Charleston, and Col. Perry, of one of the upland districts, are the only two men who differ seriously with the mass of the people, and they withdraw all opposition, and bow to the popular will.

Disunion from a Love of Disunion--Disunion by Reason of a Failure to Correct the Breaches of the Constitution.

Passing by as a number too few even to merit classification, those citizens of the South who are liable to the reproach of "Submissionists," two parties do actually exist in the South impelled in their action by different motives, and animated with different emotions in the position which they occupy in regard to the present political crisis, and the future destiny of the Union and the States of the Union. There does exist in the South a party of men who are disunionists per se--not disunionists alone because of a failure on the part of the Northern people to fulfill the obligations which they, through their State sovereignties, assumed in the Federal Constitution-- not from any dark spot which might tarnish the bright escutcheon of their honor, by virtue of their affiliation with the North--but disunionists, believing that the Cotton States will be advanced in the scale of wealth, prosperity, happiness and glory to an infinitely higher degree, if separated from the States of the North and confederated in a government of their own, than if they are members of the present Federal Union, even if all the provisions of the Federal Constitution are fully complied with, and every right and guarantee contained in the government is honestly adhered to. We do not think we would be hazarding too much when we express the opinion that South Carolina entertains this sentiment, and all those of the South who are willing to secede from the Union, notwithstanding satisfactory assurances and perfect guarantees are given by the North that hereafter our privileges and our property shall sustain no damage from Northern legislation, and ample indemnification is provided for every attack on individual rights and interests by fanatical mobs and abandoned outlaws.

There does exist in the South a party--a bold, brave, conservative party--which does not only act for the protection of their present interests, and the vindication of their honor, but are incited in their purposes by the purest motives of philanthropy and patriotism which ever actuated any body of men striking for the freedom of their country and the safety and integrity of their household alters. That party is the one which agrees to remain in the Union, ample satisfaction being given by notorious deed and legitimate method, that abolition fanaticism shall no more triumph over and trample upon Southern interests and Southern property. To condense in a few words: we have disunionists through a love of disunion, and we have disunionists through a hatred to usurpation and tyranny. We have no word of disrespect for South Carolina and other Southern States which see proper to leave the Union. They are Sovereign States, entitled to judge and act for themselves, and to weigh the consequences of their acts. There have been grievous breaches of the federal bond, we know, and it affords them favorable occasion to hoist the banner of secession, with no alternative of change. But whilst we concede to these States the power to determine their own destiny, we, without the slightest hesitancy, attach ourselves to that party which believes that the Federal Government, if legitimately administered and honestly adhered to, is the best adapted to the condition and the hopes of the people of the United States of North America, of any other species of government we have ever read of or ever heard of.

We are for a continuation of the Federal Union, if the Northern people repudiate and abandon their unjust course, and afford us sufficient security that they mean to deal honestly with the South in this regard. We are for secession on the part of Virginia, the border States and the South, and a proper division of the common property, if this security is not given.

After secession, new Confederations, we have no doubt, will be formed. We trust, sincerely trust, that every Southern State will be a member of a common Confederation, if this necessity-- which Heaven forbid--is forced upon us.

We hope that those true friends of justice in the North who have stood by us in the darkest hour of our peril, will either make their homes in this Southern Republic, or correct public opinion and control public sentiment in their own States sufficiently to justify the South in receiving them into any future alliance which they may adopt. We are determined to unite with no State which does not admit Virginia's equality with her--does not eschew every badge of royalty, and every idea of aristocracy, monarchy and caste. We must have a Confederacy of free States, under a free government, with a written Constitution.--If Virginia cannot get this, let Virginia stand alone or fall.

Border State Convention.

We are gratified to notice that our suggestion for a Convention of the Border States is being generally endorsed and recommended by the press of all parties in this and other States. We believe that is the most efficacious remedy that can be adopted if a National Convention should not be called. Let the Border States assemble in convention, take their position upon the present Constitution, with any modifications a free conference and patient deliberation may recommend, and then invite all the States of the Union to join them. A union would be more speedily effected upon a more lasting basis than the present, from which doubtless would be excluded South Carolina and the New England States. Or, if they came into it, they would have to do so upon such conditions as would forever preclude them from disturbing the harmony of the confederacy again. A Border State Convention is the most feasible idea upon which the Union can be reconstructed, the forms of republican government preserved, and the growth, power and prosperity of our country secured.

Letter from South Carolina.

COLUMBIA, S. C., Dec. 3d, 1860.

DEAR SIR:--As yet, I have seen but little of the city, for such it claims to be.--The present census, imperfectly taken all admit, makes the population near ten thousand. From the State House, the corporate limits extend a mile towards each point of the compass. The ground sloping gracefully in every direction affords very desirable building sites, anywhere. The streets are one hundred feet wide, and planted with the willow and live oak and China trees.--The residences have spacious grounds most tastefully ornamented with all the evergreens and shrubs common to this clime.--The most interesting part of the town, containing the residence of the late Wade Hampton, now occupied by his son-in-law, Col. John Preston, I have not yet seen.--This spot it was where the distinguished orator of the South, Wm. C. Preston lately breathed his last. The new State House, in progress of building, commands a beautiful view, the site reminding me much of ours. The granite of which it is constructed is nearly equal to that at Richmond--perhaps not quite so fair in color, or fine in texture. The style is Corinthian, and judging from a beautiful drawing in the architects office, will be more striking than the National Capitol. The busts of McDuffie and Hayne, in basso-relievo, adorn the front, on either side of the door opening from the second story, on to the portico.--In rear of the new, and in front of the old State House, stands the monument erected to the memory of those brave men of the Palmetto Regiment who fell in Mexico.--The base is of iron, some eight feet in height, with sides inclining towards each other at top, and with an open space at bottom, in which is a copper block, inscribed with the names of the officers and men, and the whole surmounted with a Palmetto tree of copper, but so true to life, that you are only convinced by handling it that it has not just been removed from that beautiful grove you will remember, on the south of Charleston harbor. In the original design the monument was to have been made much higher, which will be done when the new Capitol is finished, by placing it on a more elevated base. In these days you can scarcely open a paper from the North, that you do not find taunts and innuendos indulged in by those miserable Black Republican journals, against the bravery and courage of this people. It has been my pleasure since I came here to become well acquainted with two of the brave Captains of that noble regiments, one of whom holds the position of Adjutant and Inspector General of the State, and the other represents most worthily the District of Newberry in the present House of Representatives, and wears the title of General. Before the battle of Cherubusco, I think it was, that Gen. Butler, in writing to Gen. Worth, said--"Col. Dickinson deserves a place in the picture, near the flashing of the guns." Gen. Worth, on the day of battle, said to Gen. Shields, "there is not a South Carolinian here, who will not follow you to death."--"Aye, to the death," responded private Whitfield Brooks. "Stand the fire at all hazards, remembering you are from South Carolina," were the last inspiring words of Lieut. D. R. Clarke. But I cannot give you a better description of their noble bearing on that bloody field, than in the description taken from the "Life and Correspondence of Gen. John a. Quitman." which I enclose. The following is an extract of the description of the battle of Cherubusco:

"Col. Butler, of the South Carolinians,, had left his sick bed against the remonstrances of his friends, to lead the Palmettos to the combat. Early in the engagement his horse was shot under him. Soon after he received a painful wound in the knee, yielded the command to Lieutenant Colonel Dickinson. Taking the Palmetto flag from the hands of Sergeant Beggs, Dickinson placed himself in front, and Beggs was immediately shot down. Col. Butler now came up to resume the command and was killed by the side of Dickinson while standing under the flag. Dickinson himself soon fell mortally wounded, (he died some weeks afterwards,) and Major Gladden received it from his hands, and committed it to Lieut. Baker, who being unable, from debility and exhaustion, to carry it, Major Gladden placed it in the hands of Patrick Leonard, and led his regiment to the charge. His men fell rapidly, but not one wavered, from first to last, under the concentrated fire of the enemy. In the whole history of war there has never been a more striking example of indifference to death, the result of stern resolve. Each man fought for the honor of Carolina. Several companies were almost annihilated.--Some had not men enough to bury their dead, or bear their wounded to the ambulances. The uniforms of some of the officers were literally torn from their persons; the color-bearers were shot down; but the flag, bathed in their blood, was always seized as they fell and borne to the front. Proudly it floated through the tempest of death until the victory had been won, and then, all torn and blood-stained, it dropped over its own glorious dead. The regiment entered the battle with 273 rank and file, and when it was over it mustered 169! It had no missing: its dead and wounded made up the deficiency. Cadets of a noble State, sons of a sunny clime, branded by their country as traitors, for defending the Constitution and their rights from usurpation and outrage, yet dying cheerfully for that country in a foreign land--the world may learn that such a race, in defense of their own homestead and institutions, can never be subdued?

Now, my friend, I deem it a privilege to have looked upon "that flag,"

or the shreds and remains of it; and I pardon the excess of State pride of a people who can boast of such trophies. It is preserved where it ought to be in a glass case in their Capitol, where her sons and daughters may see it--the former to learn the lessons so gallantly taught them, and the latter to cherish their memories and inspirit their sons and brothers to emulate their deeds. You may rest assured that when that evil day shall come (and may kind Heaven avert it!) that shall see the North in battle array against the South--South Carolina will send as brave and as gallant and as true men into the field, as the noble spirits that carried that Palmetto flag from Vera Cruz and planted it on the battlements of the halls of the Montezumas. And, more than that, as fair and beautiful and spirited mothers and wives and daughters will send them forth to battle for their household gods, as any, the most highly favored of this once happy nation, could ever boast. The spirit of the fair is excited beyond that of the other sex in this crisis, and he would be a craven base who would not fight for homes, graced with such inmates.

* * * * * * * *

But permit me here, in connexion with this last subject, (the slave trade,) to do justice to the people of S. C., and to defend them fully and decidedly against this charge brought against them. I speak what I do know, when I say that not one sixth part of her population is in favor of re-opening this trade--I have it from her Senators and Representatives, from every part of the State, and they disapprove of it unequivocally and most decidedly, as inhumane, cruel, uncalled for, and inexpedient. They tell me that a few men along the coast and in some of the lower parishes, and generally of the Rhett school, are in favor of it. I have heard but one man advocate it, and I have purposely sought conversations with them, to find out their views. I could but be impressed with the fact, that S. C. is ahead of Virginia in humanity, in regarding as sacred the marriage relations among her slaves, and frowning down a disposition to separate husband and wife, parent and child. Public opinion is strong, decided, unmistakable, and departure from this course is the exception. In no part of the South is the slave more cared for, more humanely treated, better clothed, fed and nursed when sick; and what untold and unspeakable comfort would there be to the thousands of houseless sufferers, especially females, in the Northern States, this winter, and at this very moment, if they could not only share the blessings of these slaves--aye, but if they could but enjoy what they waste, what they throw away. And yet, those myrmidons of hell--the Sumners and Garrisons and Wilsons, and all that class of pseudo-philanthropists--not only shut their eyes to these starving, suffering, wretched thousands famishing at their doors, but must incite these happy, contented, well cared for slaves to murder and pillage, to rapine and blood. Not only do they instigate, by their counsels and their teachings, that all this is doing God service, but their blind fanaticism has applied the incendiary's torch to this noble fabric, that has sheltered us for three-parts of a century, and has rent this glorious Union into fragments. If there be a spot in the region of the damned, where the torture is greater--where the serpent stingeth deeper--to that spot ought they to be consigned. Pardon the warmth of this digression. In a conversation with a large rice planter from the coast, who works some three hundred negroes, he informs me the task system prevails, which the hand can accomplish in a half of three parts of a day with ease, and devote the remainder to his own amusement or profit. And one source of both is in shooting ducks, which they sell. On my expressing surprise at their being permitted to have arms, he remarked, nothing was more common, and he supposed that on his plantation there were forth or fifty of one kind or another, and that in a hostile invasion he felt perfectly assured those arms would be used in the defence of their master, instead of against him. To show the absurdity of the idea entertained by these aforesaid satellites of his Infernal Majesty--that the labor of the South can as well be performed by the white as the negro--I will state that gentlemen of unquestionable integrity inform me, there are plantations within a dozen of miles of the city of Charleston, the owners of which would no more dare to sleep on one night than to lie down under the shade of the deadly Upas, and yet the negroes enjoy uninterrupted health. The overseer, whose duty it is to be almost constantly with them, has his residence off on the sand hills, as convenient as can be, and often falls a victim to disease. Of course I refer to the cultivation of rice. I find no sort of apprehension entertained by the people, whether from the mountain, the interior, or the low-land districts, in regard to their slaves. Such is their humanity towards them, and the strength of attachment, that all the influences the designing and mischievous can, with their limited opportunities, bring to bear on this class, is inoperative.

As I have been disposed to run a parallel between South Carolinians and Virginians, I will do so in another instance, and, I regret to say, the comparison is unfavorable to us. I refer to the subject of temperance. I have been now well night a week in intimate friendly social intercourse with the representatives of both branches of the Legislature of the State, and seen much, also, of other dignitaries, such as Judges, ex-Governors, &c., and I have not seen a drink at the bar indulged in by any on of these gentlemen since I have been here. I have seen more liquor drank at the bar of the Virginia Hotel in two hours of a Court day, or in a half-hour at the bar of the Exchange hotel, than I have seen drank by all classes here since I came. In many of the districts of the State there is not a licensed grog-shop of any kind, and the representative of the district of Marlboro' informed me that there had not been one in his for the period of twenty years, and what may seem singular, the Board of Commissioners, whose duty it is to grant these licenses, were men fond of the article, but yet, actuated by a sense of duty to others, invariably refused all applications. I may have observed in a former letter the marked homogeneous character of this people. It is particularly true as applied to the representatives. To one familiar with the members of our Legislature, the fact would be quite noticeable. They have no subjects of political difference, nor any local questions that make the asperity you sometimes see in our legislative halls. In the great questions now agitating the State, they are a unit. 'Tis remarkable, that of their prominent men, Col. Pettigree, of Charleston, and Col. Perry, of one of the upland districts, are the only two men who differ seriously with the mass of the people, and they withdraw all opposition, and bow to the popular will. Yours sincerely,

J. M. McC.